DAILY NATION Monday February 3, 2014 TECHNOLOGY| The long road for Chinese giant Lenovo seeks global reach with big deals Firm now wants to diversify portfolio as sales of personal computers decline BEIJING, Sunday square-metre bungalow as their headquarters, a small group of scientists in Beijing founded a firm called New Technology Developer Inc. Thirty years later, the I tech company — which went on to become Legend and later Lenovo — is the world’s biggest personal computer maker, and has just completed two major deals with IBM and Google that analysts say will help it to diversify away from the sagging PC market and boost its expansion overseas. Lenovo’s $2.3 bi l l ion purchase of IBM’s low-end server business and its $2.91 billion acquisition of n 1984, with only $25,000 in Chinese government funding and a dusty 20- Motorola from Google are evidence of the Chinese tech giant’s “global ambitions”, said Jean-Francois Dufour at DCA Chine-Analyse. “Just as iPhones and iPads have overtaken Macs Amount of money, in dollars, that the company started off with China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; America is” President Obama ‘‘ 25,000 in commercial importance for Apple, smartphones and tablets are expected to replace PCs in part for Lenovo,” said Dufour, who called the firm “the pioneer of Chinese companies’ global offensive”. The back-to-back deals are all the more significant because of their timing, coming just as US President Barack Obama noted in his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday that “for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; America is”. With Chinese investment in the US doubling to $14 billion in 2013, a larger and larger share of that capital is coming from America’s rival across the Pacific — a fact unmentioned by Obama in his speech. From its humble begin- nings, Lenovo has charted an impressive course in the personal computer market. (AFP) Business News 31 NEW YEAR | Here is to good times India to ease, visa rules, says report NEW DELHI, Sunday Tourists travelling to India from up to 180 countries will no longer have to queue at their local consulates to obtain visas under reforms expected to be approved this week, local media reported today. Most foreigners currently have to wait several weeks before knowing whether they will be allowed to enter the country after submitting their applications at visa processing centres, a major deterrent for potential visitors. But India’s intelligence agencies WILLIAM WEST | AFP A performer entertains the crowds during Sydney’s Chinese New Year Parade for the Lunar New Year yesterday. Tens of thousands packed the city’s central business district to watch 2,700 people perform. have now given their backing to proposals that would allow tourists to apply online and then wait only three days before receiving the green light, the Indian Express reported. They would then be able to pick up their visas on arrival at any airport. India currently issues visas on arrival to visitors from about a dozen foreign nations, including Japan and Indonesia. (AFP) Africa Alliance, Nairobi, Kenya Ipas is a global non-governmental organization formed in 1973 is dedicated to ending preventable deaths and disabilities from unsafe abortion. Through local, national and global partnerships, Ipas works to ensure that women obtain safe, respectful and comprehensive reproductive health services. Ipas Africa Alliance is based in Nairobi and focuses on regional policy change and improving reproductive health programs in multiple Africa countries. Save the Children International East Africa Regional Office Consultancy Services Provision of Consultancy Services for Designing & Developing IT Based Data Management System on Children in Armed Conflict in Support of African Union Peace Support Operations Background Save the Children International (SCI) is the world’s leading independent organization for children. As part of our contribution towards ensuring that every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation, Save the Children has been working with armed forces in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) since 1998 and with the African Union (AU) for the last ten years to promote the rights of children in conflicts, post-conflict and protracted political emergency situations. Within this paradigm, Save the Children’s focus has been on training national military personnel and peacekeepers on Child Rights and Protection. Since the inception of these projects approximately 91,156 military elements have been trained or sensitized. In effort to further strengthen and sustain this relationship with defense institutions, Save the Children in collaboration with regional and international partners have embarked on developing systems for collecting and analyzing data and information useful for supporting decision making processes among the various peace support operation stakeholders in Eastern and West Africa . To support this regional capacity building initiative, Save the Children East Africa Regional Office seeks to hire a consultant to design and develop data management system on children in armed conflict integrating child protection specialists and peace support operation stakeholders through rostering system in Eastern and West Africa. The Scope of the Services and Objectives of the Consultancy Designing a comprehensive Child Protection- Peace Support Operation (PSO) information System requires establishment of an effective system for managing the historical data and the recently captured data. The overall goal of the consultancy is, therefore, to establish user-friendly child protection-peace support operation data management system for collecting and analyzing data on children affected by armed conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. This will be carried out in consultation with the regional standby forces and deliver the system by identifying and developing on-line capabilities for collecting, editing data and enabling exchange of information on children in armed conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. Deliverables • An IT based solution to support data collection and analysis of issues surrounding children affected by armed conflict in peace support operations in Africa • Subsequent training for Save the Children Staff on the software • A written manual for the software • A web based platform for information sharing • Continuous maintenance of the software • An integrated web-based system that precisely incorporates experts profile, roster and elements of early warning including timely reporting and feedback mechanisms. Qualifications and Experience To fulfill the requirements of the above scope of work, the lead consultant should have the following qualifications: • Extensive experience in design and development of data base for managing diverse information; experience in integrated child protection and/peace support operation programming is an added advantage • Minimum of university degree, preferably IT, information management system or systems engineering • Ability to simplify and communicate technical information to variety of audience • Demonstrated high level of professionalism and an ability to work independently with tight deadlines Submitting expression of interest Save the Children now invites eligible individual consultants to indicate their interests in providing the service. Interested consultants must provide the following information to demonstrate their qualifications to deliver the services: • A proposal of the concept detailing components of the data management system • An outline including time schedule and work plan • Proven record of experience in developing data management systems including company profile and record list of experience and related work. Applications with the subject line “Designing & Developing Information Technology Based Data Management System on Children in Armed Conflict in Support of African Union Peace Support Operation” should be submitted to: Save the Children Regional Office. Email Address: EA.recruitment@savethechildren.org by 9th February, 2014. We work with children, communities and governments all over the world and we believe in the right person for the job regardless of where you come from and how you identify yourself. We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to ensuring that only those who are suitable to work with children are considered for these posts. All successful applicants will therefore be required to complete a Police Check and must sign onto our Child Safeguarding Policy and organizational Code of Conduct. The closing date for submitting applications is February 9, 2014. We regret that only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Ipas is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. FIXED TERM CONSULTANCY OPPORTUNITY Ipas Africa Alliance is looking for individuals, who are organized, highly motivated and results oriented to join a dynamic team for a fixed term consultancy contract up to June 30, 2015. Youth Advisor Consultant – Ref. No. Ipas /Programs/01/2014 (1 position) Purpose of the job The Youth Advisor Consultant will support the technical youth work at a national level through the development and execution of innovative strategies for implementing and promoting youth friendly women’s reproductive health and rights services. In particular, the Youth Advisor will provide technical support, program management and strategic direction on a sexual and reproductive health and rights initiative to build knowledge and skills of University students to ensure that young women receive information about preventing and managing unwanted pregnancy; and to build the capacity of young people to serve as community and policy leaders. Key responsibilities • Provide technical support, program management and strategic direction on a sexual and reproductive health initiative in 4 Kenyan Universities • Design and implement youth focused intervention programs that increase young people’s knowledge and access to sexual and reproductive health and rights at the national level. • Facilitate partner meetings to ensure youth needs are addressed and integrated into projects. • • Design and conduct dissemination of project results internally and externally. Contribute to the development of educational materials that integrate appropriate youth content. • Work with the in-country team to develop and write proposals, reports, and presentations, including information for donor documents. • Draft initial activity reports and update activity report list; follow up with partners about grant reports; and enter/update information in the organizational databases, managing contact databases as appropriate. Qualifications and competencies The ideal candidate should have a Bachelors degree in social sciences or its equivalent. The candidate should have a minimum of 5-7 years of work experience with women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights and 3-4 years’ experience implementing youth focused programs, as well as program management skills including work plan development and budgeting. In addition, the candidate should be familiar with how to work in tertiary institutions, have excellent interpersonal, written and oral comminication skills. One must have the ability to prioritize duties and work under minimal supervision. One must have strong Microsoft suite skills. If you would like to join this dynamic team, please quote the position and reference number in the subject matter and send your application letter and CV including contact details of three work-related referees, to the Human Resources Advisor, Ipas Africa Alliance by e-mail to hrrecruit@ipas.org Please do not attach certificates and testimonials at this point.